Feds pressure American Airlines to save pensions
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_AMERICAN_AIRLINES_PENSIONS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-31-13-03-15DALLAS (AP) -- The federal pension-insurance agency filed $91 million in liens against American Airlines property in a bid to pressure the company to save its retirement plans instead of dumping the obligations on the agency.
The agency said Tuesday it was forced to file liens when American, which filed for bankruptcy protection in November, paid only $6.5 million of a required contribution of nearly $100 million toward its pension plans last week.
The move escalated a fight between American and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., whose director accused the company of pocketing pension relief money instead of putting it into workers' retirements.
American's parent company, AMR Corp., and its chief bankruptcy lawyer have raised the possibility that the company could freeze or terminate pension plans that cover about 130,000 employees and retirees. The company could make its intentions clear on Wednesday, when it presents new contract proposals to its unions.
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And as you know, righties have a ferocious hate of "big labor". The other angle is that most employed in the private have had their pensions sharply cut or eliminated entirely, so it's natural for the black-hearted amognst them to express zero sympathy for those whose pensions remain. They're just spiteful bastards.
Nice time we live in these days 
Pensions were frozen for 'grandfathered' employees (Those still qualified for pensions!) and eliminated for anyone not employed long enough to be vested. All this while giving us 5% pay cuts, which we were told: 'might be temporary.' At the same time we were told that the pay cuts were permanent, someone found a link to the SEC site that showed the huge salaries and bonuses our executives were giving themselves.
Our CEO was Rakesh Gangwal, who has a history of wrecking companies for fun and profit. He left US Airways in shambles while he walked away with a cool $15 million in his piggy (and I do mean piggy) bank. During his tenure at Worldspan he tried to get the company ready for an IPO; since the market rewards ruthlessness, he laid people off and cut benefits. When the market wouldn't pay what he was asking, he tried to sell the company, and yeah, that meant more layoffs.
I remember those days. All of us were sweating every time the company announced another round of layoffs. I remember waking up one night, sweating, with my heart pounding; a classical anxiety attack. I'm sure most of my co-workers were experiencing similar symptoms.
And, during all this Rakki and His Friends were making out like bandits!!!!